Richard Coffin

Richard Coffin is Chief of Research and Advocacy at USAFacts, Steve Ballmer's not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic initiative aimed at empowering Americans with facts by making government data more accessible, understandable, and useable. He joined the organization as its first employee in 2015 and guided it through its initial research and ideation phase, oversaw its launch, and steered its product vision as the organization expanded and evolved. In his role leading research and advocacy, Richard and his team oversee the organization’s research efforts including its publications, standards of analysis, and subject matter expertise. He is also responsible for the organization’s government outreach and partnerships where he focuses on providing accurate, accessible, and understandable data to government for use in decision-making. In this capacity, he is also responsible for identifying and supporting improvements that can be made to data collected and produced by federal, state, and local government. Prior to this role, Richard spent several years as the organization’s Chief Product Officer, where he led product vision and strategy, data acquisition, content production, and the build out of the customer-facing website and platform.